Daring Do and the Heart of the Everfree Forest: p5

The next morning, Daring Do woke up from her branchy bed. She slowly flew to the ground. Once she reached the ground, Daring yawned and stretched out her her legs, wings and vertebrae.

Feeling very hungy, she decided to eat some of the purple Violets that grew in the small clearing she had been near all night.

"The guidebook says they are alright", she mumbled, drowsily, "So here's breakfast"

But just as she began to munch on the purple petals of the Violets, she heard a little shrieking noise and froze still in shock. Daring felt a very nervous, the Creature that made that noise did not sound like anything she had encountered yet.

Out from the nearby bushes appeared some sort of very young toddler Monkey. It had a Deer-like tail, a short Baboon-like snout and had pale gray coloring. It also wore a skirt made from long grass blades around its waist and a necklace made with Mouse bones and Stork feathers around its neck.

Daring immediately flew back to the tree branch she had slept in for the night, took out her book from her pack and flew back to the ground near the little Primate.

"Here's what you are", she said, finding the right profile, "You're just a very young Mandrill" She realized that the reason why it did not look like the one in the bo was because it was clearly a baby.

"Are you lost?" she asked it, sitting down on her gut and looked the little Monkey in the eyes kindly. The infant Mandrill then spoke to Daring Do in a language she could not understand.

"Looks like I'll later need to learn your language from my book here", said Daring, placing her book back in her backpack and began to stand up.

But as she rose to her feet, the Mandrill youngster paniced and retreated, as if she were this giant alien Mammal standing taller than it.

"Well that was...bizarre", said Daring, not knowing what to think of the little Mandrill not treating her as a friendly species and ditching her.








A little later on, Daring Do came across another river. But just as she began to drink, she heard the calls of what sounded like small Elephants. And there, on the other side of the river, a small herd of Pony-sized Elephants were grazing on the grass and browsing on the nearby low-hanging trees.

"This place just gets more and more stranger", said Daring. She pulled the the book out and looked up these small Elephants. She found their profile, which identified them as (appropriately enough) Pygmy Elephants. She learned they are a small subspecies of Forest Elephant that shrank in size due to enviromental conditions

Daring observed that, just like other kinds of Elephants, adult females stick together in herds and males leave and live alone when they reach maturity. The matriarch of the herd was on the lookout for danger. She spotted Daring aweing at them from across the river and knew immediately that she was no threat, a fellow herbivore. All of a sudden, the matriarc was stuck in alert mode, sensing something dangerous approaching. However, the rest of the herd was more concerned with feeding their own safety from predators.

"This does indeed look like a risky place to have a picnic", said Daring to herself, still observing the herd from across the river, "Where they're feeding is exposed and flanked by a thick line of tree cover. Perfect for an ambush"

Little did most of the Pygmy Elephant herd realize was that the matriarch and the Pony from across the river were indeed right, something was stalking from nearby, something hungry.


To Be Continued